St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-11-05
OGLESRY'S TRIAL.

Few men in official life have ever been
placed in as trying a position as Gov.
OGLESBY occupies at this time with the
fate of the anarchists in his hands.
The lives of seven human beings de-
pend on the stroke of his pen. There
is no other earthly power which can
prOlOng the life of a single one of these
condemned men beyond next Friday
except the power which the cOnstitu-
ton of the state of Illinois invests in
its governor. Three of these con-
demned men have united in a petition
to the governor asking for executive
clemeney, and it is in fixing the fate of
these petitioners that Gov. OGLESBY is
confronted with the gravest response
bility. 1t is a very narrow soul that
does not possess some element of the
unstrained quality of mercy, and it
must be a cold heart that does not know
som ething of the Godlike glory of
forgiving. 1t is said to be the
crown and the glory of justice where
1t may kill with right to save with pity.
Gov. OGLEsBY is himself an old man,
whose earthly course is about run, and
doubtless feels consciousness of his
approach to the borders of the mystic
land where his only hope of eternal
happiness is in the extension of
that same divine attribute of mercy
which he is now being asked to extend
his fellow mortalS. 1t would be a cal
lous heart, indeed, that would not be
touched by these conditions. Then,
0nain fhn old fool
other weighty responsibility in
this, that if it should turn out, as
has been predicted by the socialists,
that the blood of the anarchists will be
the seed of a new social revolution on
this continent, which will result in the
ultimate destruction of all law and
order. then his name and memory
would be eXecrated by succeeding
generations for not having prevented
what was in his power to prevent by
the exercise of executive elem
ency. Such are the emotional consider
atoms which weigh on the one side.
On the other stands out in bold relief
the insulted law, asking vindicatiOn at
the hands of one whose sworn duty it is
to execute it. Then there is the blood
OF the slain policemen crying out from
the ground of the Haymarket for
vengeance. And back of all this is a
clamOring public, who insists that the
extension of mercy to the bad is cruelty
to the good, and that the execution of
the condemned men is demanded by
every consideration of justice. las well as
essential as an example to destructive
element that has worked its way into
our American society. 1t is between
the tenderer emotions which are natural
to every human heart and that sterner
sense of official duty that pertains to
the chief magistrate of great
commonwealth that Gov. OGLEsBY is
being pressed. His is position that no
one envieS, and it is with no little con-
Germ that all his countrymen are await
ing the result of his conclusions in the
matter. 1t will probably be the last inn
portant act of public career of long
duration and one that has already been
covered with distinction, and thus the
reasons are all the more weighty why
the governor should shape his action so
that it will not leave single regret TO
tinge the sunset Of long and brilliant
public life, nor to leave one stain on the
commonwealth whose reputation is in
his keeping.